Every one of these stories is a disgusting example of how the political class in Washington squanders our money in a frivolous manner, generally in ways that line the pockets of well-connected insiders.

And as you might imagine, every day brings new revelations of waste. The latest boondoggle to catch my eye is from the State Department, which has been pissing away money in an attempt to “buy friends.”

…web-savvy State Department employees spent $630,000 to earn more Facebook “likes,” in an effort that struggled to reach its target audience, according to a searing Inspector General’s report… Between 2011 and March 2013, the department’s Bureau of the International Information Programs, tried to boost the seeming popularity of the department’s Facebook properties by advertising and page improvements. But the results weren’t so good… “Many in the bureau criticize the advertising campaigns as ‘buying fans’ who may have once clicked on an ad or ‘liked’ a photo but have no real interest in the topic and have never engaged further,” reads the Inspector General report.

Gee, isn’t this just great. My tax dollars are being flushed down a toilet so some geeks at the State Department could create the illusion that more people liked some propaganda pages.

But we’re talking about government, so let’s not forget mindless duplication.

The IG report stings — especially because the Bureau of International Information and Programs is supposed to be Foggy Bottom’s epicenter of online savvy. …overlap and coordination issues trouble the various bureau’s 150 social media accounts. The report also mentions a “pervasive perception of cronyism” exacerbating its already “serious morale problem.” …Some of the issues are rather tedious, like whether embassy staffers should go to the Office of Web Engagement or the Office of Innovative Engagement for advice on social media.

Perhaps I’m just old fashioned, but why on earth am I paying for an “Office of Web Engagement” and an “Office of Innovative Engagement.” Not only that, but I’m paying for them to squabble over who gets to hold more meetings and produce more memos?!?

Since I’m a peacemaker, I have a very simply solution to that controversy. Let’s abolish both of those worthless parts of the federal behemoth.

Let’s close by looking at the big picture. My leftist friends, when confronted by this boondoggle, or other examples of government waste, have a formulaic response: “You’re fixating on a trivial issue that equals only an infinitesimally small share of the budget,” they say, “entitlements account for the lion’s share of federal spending.”

1. You can spend your own money on yourself. When you do that, why you really watch out for what you’re doing, and you try to get the most for your money.

2. Then you can spend your own money on somebody else. For example, I buy a birthday present for someone. Well then, I’m not so careful about the content of the present, but I’m very careful about the cost.

3. Then, I can spend somebody else’s money on myself. And if I spend somebody else’s money on myself, then I’m going to have a good lunch!

4. Finally, I can spend somebody else’s money on somebody else. And if I spend somebody else’s money on somebody else, I’m not concerned about how much it costs, and I’m not concerned about what I get.

And that’s government. And that’s close to 40 percent of our national income.

While I’m at it, I would like to add my own personal story about useless bureaucrats. Within the ever-so-valuable Department of Education, we have an Office for Civil Rights (OCR), whose job it is to enforce federal education laws, including Title IX. When the local school district built a 1.4-million-dollar field house for the boys, with nothing comparable for the girls, I asked the OCR to investigate. They did. Just recently, after 4 full years of investigating, they concluded that the 1.4 million dollar field house for the boys is, in fact, equal to nothing for the girls.

If the Department of Education was completely abolished, I have no doubt that within a couple of years, as local and state agencies adjusted to the disappearance of those magical federal dollars, no one would even notice its departure.
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The local and state educational bureaucracies could do away with that part of their own bureaucracies that were consumed in chasing those federal dollars. They would also be free of the federal paperwork burdens, such as NCLB and Title IX compliance. And they would not give a second thought about trying to write the best report in hopes of winning the “race to the top” dollars.
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Let’s face it. The U.S. Department of Education spends $80 billion per year and DOES NOT EDUCATE A SINGLE SOUL.

One point I’d like to expand on here:
Yes, paying for these small entities may be just a “spit in the ocean” amount of spending, but that group of people becomes one more set of died-in-the-wool advocates of continued escess spending of government money on such waste. And they are not about to vote for (or support in any other way) a person who would do in the MAJOR money waster that supports their own branch of wasteful spending. And so, we end uo with people on teh government dole who feel it is also their responsibility to be certain that the gravy train does not miss its appointed rounds.